


Hot Like Wasabi

by La_Temperanza



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Sushi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-08
Updated: 2012-04-08
Packaged: 2017-11-03 06:57:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/378588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/La_Temperanza/pseuds/La_Temperanza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Gwaine wanted to take Leon out to dinner, he probably should've done it differently. Leon doesn't seem to mind in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hot Like Wasabi

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for [marguerite-26's One Word Prompt Meme](http://marguerite-26.livejournal.com/665487.html?thread=12622479#t12622479). The prompt was "Leon/Gwaine. Ginger."

For being such an easygoing guy, Gwaine often seemed hesitant to try new things, at least without alcohol in him first. Which was why he downed three of the small cups of saké before he could even so much as look at a spicy ahi tuna roll without making a weird face. 

(Funny how he took to the saké like fish to water, explaining how alcohol was alcohol, no matter how it was presented. 

“You can say the same thing about liver cirrhosis,” Leon had answered, wrinkling his nose. Gwaine had just chuckled as he poured himself some more.)

“If you’re not even going to eat anything, why did we even go to a sushi restaurant?” Leon sighed as he watched Gwaine prod a piece of taka sushi, as if determining the likelihood of it coming to life and if he would need to spear it with his chopstick when it did.

Pausing in the middle of his careful “examination”, Gwaine just gave that cheeky smug grin he seemed to wear ninety percent of the time. “It was the most expensive place I could think of.”

Leon froze, the piece of tamago he was about to pop in his mouth slipping out his chopsticks. “Why would you want that? Our jobs pay ‘shit’, as you so eloquently put it this morning in the break room. In front of everyone.”

Leaning back in his chair so he could reach into the pocket of his jeans, Gwaine pulled out a credit card, flashing it proudly before placing it down on the table. “This is teaching a certain ‘princess’ a lesson about keeping a better eye on his things.”

“…You didn’t.” Leon’s chopsticks clattered against his plate as he snatched the card, his heart sinking to his stomach when he read the name. “You stole Arthur’s credit card. _You stole Arthur Pendragon’s credit card_.”

“Even if we ate everything in the restaurant, I don’t think we’d even make a dent in his credit,” Gwaine snorted, gulping another cup of saké, shaking his head to quell the burn in his throat. “When he gets the bill, he’ll probably chalk it up as some business luncheon.”

Mentally, Leon was tallying up the cost of everything they had ordered already while cursing himself for being so stupid; he should have know Gwaine would have a secret agenda in asking Leon out to dinner. “He’s not getting the bill, because I’m paying for my share.” Even if it wiped out most of what he currently had in his account.

“Hell no!” Gwaine slammed the cup down on the table a little too loudly, gathering stares from others in the restaurant. “Look, I’m the one that I asked you out to dinner, so I should pay for it, yeah? I should’ve known you’d be like this, but it’s Arthur’s fault too; he says we’re his friends, but he and his father treat us just like the rest of the mindless drones. Especially you.”

Leon wanted to open his mouth, to rattle off his usual spiel of how proud he was to work for Camelot Enterprises as one of its senior staff, even if meant working late nights and weekends. Even if with everything he did, with all the blood, sweat, and tears he poured into the company, it constantly felt like he was trapped under a glass ceiling. Even with every morning board meeting, with a plastered smile fixed to his face, he would give his reports with a rehearsed finesse, only to have Uther give him a little cursory nod before moving on to the next topic. Arthur often apologized for his father’s behavior, promising how things would be different once he was president of the company, but no one knew when that would ever be.

Not wanting to immerse himself in such thoughts, Leon reached for the spare cup he hadn’t touched until now. “Hand me that saké.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Gwaine chuckled as he handed the stoneware bottle over. “Okay, I think I’m ready to actually try one of these things. What’s this pink stuff on the edge? It’s not raw fish, is it?”

Choking at the strength of the saké (God, how was Gwaine able to drink the stuff?), Leon had to clear his throat a couple times before he replied hoarsely, “It’s gari, pickled ginger. Which isn’t a fish, just so you know.”

Gwaine frowned as he picked up the gari, sniffing it once. “I know it’s not. But hey, does this mean I get to call you gari from now on? Since, you know, you‘re a gi--”

Leon clenched his jaw slightly. “Not funny, Gwaine.”

“No, it’s hilarious,” Gwaine quipped before tentatively taking a bite, and then another. “You know, this isn’t so bad. No wonder you like this exotic stuff so much.”

“You should try it with the green paste next to it,” Leon replied, trying to keep a straight face as he gestured towards Gwaine’s plate.

In the end, Leon didn’t feel guilty in the slightest at the sight of Gwaine’s watering eyes from eating a huge glob of wasabi. 

Well, maybe a little guilty.

\--

“I’m never drinking saké again,” Gwaine moaned from his position on Leon’s couch, covering his eyes from the morning light filtering through the apartment window. He had ended up staying the night after they had left the restaurant, just because Leon couldn’t see sending his friend home when Gwaine had troubling keeping upright on the sidewalk, let alone hailing a cab.

“Serves you right,” Leon snorted, handing Gwaine a fresh cup of coffee while he nursed his own.

Taking the mug gratefully, Gwaine took a sip and winced. “And never trusting you again when it comes to food I don’t know about. It feels like most of my taste buds were scoured off.”

“You think that’s bad? You know that one sushi you ordered twice? Ikura, with the little red beads on it?”

“Yeah?”

Leon shrugged, obviously enjoying this. “Made from fish eggs.”

“Fuck,” Gwaine grumbled, “I’m going to grow some weird hybrid Godzilla thing inside me now, and it’s going to burst out of my stomach like Alien, and it will be all your damn fault.”

“You’re the one who decided to take me to a sushi restaurant using a stolen credit card,” Leon rebutted, scoffing at Gwaine’s ignorance as he moved to put his now empty coffee mug in the sink, halting when Gwaine grabbed his wrist. He looked down at it, then at Gwaine, who was smirking as he rubbed a thumb against Leon’s skin. “You liked it though, right? I know you’re in to that sort of shit.”

“It was okay,” Leon answered truthfully, his brain more focusing on Gwaine’s touch than his words. “But don’t drink so much next time, I’m tired of carting your ass around.”

“But you like my ass, everyone does,” Gwaine said with a chuckle before tugging on Leon’s arm to bring him closer, suddenly pressing their mouths together.

Instinctively, Leon’s first thought was to pull away; he knew Gwaine had a reputation as a flirt around the office, and was prone to be interested in both sexes. And yeah, while Leon couldn’t deny he had been interested as well, he shouldn’t be doing this. He shouldn’t be “fraternizing” with his co-workers, since interoffice romance was heavily frowned upon, and he didn’t need--

“Stop,” Gwaine growled, moving his lips away just slightly so he could speak, “Stop whatever damn noble thoughts you’re thinking and just let go for once, Leon.”

That was enough for Leon; he placed his mug on the coffee table (without a coaster, the horror) before running both hands in Gwaine’s hair. Fuck if he didn’t love Gwaine’s hair almost as much as he loved Gwaine’s mouth, especially when he wasn’t talking. 

After a few minutes of kissing and sucking so hard their lips were starting to go numb, Gwaine let out a breathless chuckle. “Goddamn, here I thought you would be a repressed anal-retentive guy who would back away as soon as I touched you, but…damn. _Damn_. And you taste a hell of a lot better than gari.”

Leon huffed. “Will you stop with the damn ginger comments?”

“Probably not,” Gwaine replied, tugging on one of Leon’s curls just to make his point. “Hey, if you’re gari, can I be that green stuff that probably blew my sinuses out of the back of my head?”

Letting out a groan, Leon didn’t answer and just kissed Gwaine in an effort to shut him up, not wanting to think how the comparison to gari and wasabi seemed to fit them so well.


End file.
